The fourth annual National Book Festival was held on October 9, 2004 on the National Mall between 7th and 14th Streets. The steadily growing event attracted its largest crowd of more than 80,000 book lovers.

More than 70 award-winning and nationally known authors, illustrators, and poets  were featured in eight pavilions: Children, Teens & Children, Fiction & Imagination, Mysteries & Thrillers, History & Biography, Home & Family,   Poetry, and Science Fiction & Fantasy. Also featured were two of the Library's oral history projects: Voices of Civil Rights and the Veterans History Project.

The 2004 National Book Festival Web site describes the day's activities, programs, and sponsors along with the author's biographies and Webcasts from the pavilions.